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Monday, August 31, 2009

What Is A Sears Roebuck House???

Well, after a trip to the emergency room this morning, I hope I will be feeling better soon! As you may know, I've been suffering from a case of poison ivy for almost 2 weeks, and I was still getting new breakouts. Sunday morning I woke up with a little swelling under one eye. This morning, both eyes were swollen, and so were the sides of my nose. As soon as I looked in the mirror, I knew something wasn't right, so I jumped in the shower, got dressed, and went to the E.R. Turns out this is more reaction to the poison ivy. I am now on steroids, so I guess I won't be playing for any major sports team right now! Have you ever noticed the picture of our house on my sidebar, with the caption "Our Sears Roebuck House"? I had planned on doing a post about our house for a while now, but I've just been too lazy! So when Holly asked what a Sears Roebuck house is, I thought I better get my act together and tell you all about it! What it is, is a house that was ordered from a Sears catalog! The above picture is a reproduction of one. What you did was pick out which house you would like, and then all of the parts, from the wood to the nails to the windows, were delivered to you by train. That is why most all Sears homes are near a railroad station. We live a block away from our train station. So when all of the pieces were delivered, you would build it yourself, or hire someone to do it for you.You could pick the Glen Falls. Isn't it gorgeous? As much as I love our house, I certainly love this model too.Or maybe the Sunbeam suits your taste. I love the names of the models. So old-fashioned. But who's gonna hang out that upper window and water that windowbox?!How about the Chesterfield?Or maybe The Fairy? Looks more like a little cabin, but very cute!Our home is The Conway. I love the style of the house, and the generous front porch!Here is a picture of the furnace that was ordered for the house. I am friends with the man who grew up here, in the forties, and he said that that furnace had eight arms (pipes) and was very scary to a little boy!This is a copy of the actual paperwork. Total cost of the house? $2443! I bet that was alot of money back in 1927!Love the letterhead on this paper. I had a color copy made, just because I thought it was so neat!I wish I could find the picture that I have of the house shortly after it was built. But this is what it looks like today. We love our home, and think it is the ultimate antique!

34 comments:

Great Post! First of all...good luck with the poison ivy. I've suffered with that many times! HATE it! Maybe try washing your bedding in hot water several times too...Love the info. on your home. If you find the original picture after it was built, I'd love to see that.

Thank you for the wonderful post! I've always been fascinated with the Sears homes. Our first home (just two miles down the road from where we live now) was a Sears, and looking at your pictures I thought maybe it was The Fairy (tiny!), but we had one more window on the side showing. Not far from us is the town (Carlinville IL) with the largest collection of Sears homes, love to just look!

I never heard of a Sears Roebuck House.When I was a kid(a long time ago)anytime someone would ask where I got something I would say Sears and Roebuch because we lived in the country without a car and dad ordered everything from the catalog.

Great history on the house...what a fun thing to know about where you live. I know absolutely nothing about hour house beyond it is a 1940s tudor...someday I'll find out more.Hope you are feeling better soon - trip to the ER is not a good way to start the day

I love the idea of picking out a house from a catalogue and the fact that it would arrive on a train! How did you find your current house? Did you have a Sears Roebuck house in mind when you looked for it or was that just an added bonus?

Hi there - so sorry about your poison ivy bout - I am the author of the book about the Carlinville Sears Homes in Historic Standard Addition and I live in the one that is always open for tours. We restored ours - which is the Roseberry Model. Thought you might like this interesting note - Sears was so into the housing market and claimed that every customer was satisfied, that they went the extra mile for every homeowner and adapted floorplans to meet everyones wishes and in Carlinville since it was a new neighborhood with 156 homes in a 9 block area, they even sent two trees for the front yard of every home. These trees were sent in the second boxcar - each house required two boxcars on the C&A Railroad. I too have always been into old houses and have grown up in them my whole life.

Oh I'm so glad you stopped by to visit today! I really enjoyed this post and I'll be hunting down one of these old catalogs and have a lovely time looking at the plans. I'll be following you and I can't wait. Have a wonderful day! ~amy

How funny, I love this house. I collect the plans and pictures of Sears houses. I wanted to make a dollhouse from scratch of one of them. I live near Levittown, a town built after WWII. They are somewhat similar to the Sears.Carey

Carol,I just had time to look through your pic of your Sears house. As I mentioned, my Uncle Frank spent his entire career with Sears. How is would love this post. Miss him, as he has passed on. I LOVE it that you have the original receipt. How cool! Our little cape was built in 1939. One of the older neighbor ladies has told me that it was built for a whopping 3500.00. Can you imagine. It is built like a fort. I love old houses and the character. Thanks for taking the time to post all the pics of yours :)Robin

We live directly across the street from a Sears house. It used to be located a few blocks down, but the current owner had it cut in half (really!) and driven to current location. They've since added on to it, so it's quite massive. (The owner is an architect.) I love that when you go inside, you can see the "seam" down the middle of the hardwoods. I'll link a picture of it for you. :) It's the fourth house down on this link.

Hey! This post could not be written any better!Reading through this post reminds me of my good old room mate!He always kept talking about this. I will forward this post to him.Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you, I've recently been searching for info approximately this subject for a while and yours is the greatest I have found out till now. But, what about the bottom line? Are you positive about the supply?

My husband and I are in the process of house hunting and have considered building and while searching this subject, I came upon a model I am so in love with ~ The American Foursquare ~ I may not actually find that style but I've learned so much about Sears houses and yours truly is a delight!

I have the same house!! I love the way yours is painted. I would love to compare notes on the inside. What do you use your upstairs bonus room for? we use it as an office. Did you put in an upstairs bathroom? Closet spaces? Previous owners turned the front downstairs bedroom into an extra living room and put an arch doorway between it and the living room. Anyway-I'd love to compare interior pics.